A UK court sided on Monday with Sony Music, EMI and several other major record companies in a case against six major Internet service providers which could push The Pirate Bay further onto the fringes of the Internet. The London High Court’s Justice Arnold stated that he believes the infamous Swedish torrent site actively engages in wide-scale copyright infringement.

Justice Arnold noted in his judgment that previous cases targeting usenet indexer Newzbin2 for copyright violations were very similar to the most recent injunction request. British Telecommunications (BT) was made to block customers from accessing the site last year, paving the way for future court-ordered ISP blockades against The Pirate Bay and others.

“In my judgment, the operators of TPB do authorize its users’ infringing acts of copying and communication to the public. They go far beyond merely enabling or assisting. On any view, they ‘sanction, approve and countenance’ the infringements of copyright committed by its users. But in my view they also purport to grant users the right to do the acts complained of. It is no defense that they openly defy the rights of the copyright owners,” wrote Justice Arnold.

If copyright holders consider Newzbin2 a mosquito, The Pirate Bay then is a tapeworm. Music and movie companies have sought to destroy the torrent hub for years with little success. Internet service providers in Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands and more already block access to the site (to varying degrees of success). BT even instituted a voluntary block limited to the company’s mobile broadband division in 2009.

A years-long case against four Pirate Bay founders came to a close earlier this month, with a judge quashing future sentencing appeals. The group was found guilty in 2009 of providing illegal access to copyrighted media.

Recognizing both the court ruling and January shutdown of Megaupload, The Pirate Bay quickly swapped its .org domain for one based in its home country. The group claimed the move was a statement – a slap to Sweden’s face for bowing to pressure from Hollywood. One week later, the site’s operators confirmed it would stop hosting most torrent files by the end of February, opting instead for magnet links.

Responding to Justice Arnold’s judgment, The Pirate Bay issued a statement calling his country “the United Kingdom of Censorship.”

“In my judgment, the courts of [United Kingdom of Censorship] do authorize its judges’ acts of corruption and being technically uneducated. They go far beyond merely enabling and assisting,” the site mocked. “I conclude that both judges’ and the politicians of [United Kingdom of Censorship] infringe the rights of the people…in the world.” (via TorrentFreak)

It's true. They do assist people in breaking copyright laws by hosting the torrents. But the solution isn't to completely shut it down. Why? UK law doesn't apply to the entire world, nor does US law. In some countries this is completely legal. Therefore, why should the laws of one country, trump the laws of others and shut the site down?

IPeople who are really intent on getting to the site and downloading the torrents will do it no matter what the law says. Blocking it from ISP's won't stop them either because people with enough technical know-how will get to it. It's just like gun laws that are supposed to stop criminals. They never stop criminals because criminals don't care about the law.

Hollywood needs to wake up and realize they're fighting an uphill battle and will most likely lose. The only way you can stop it is by mandating what people do on their computer every hour of every day (police state), and at least in this country liberty is more important than making money.

If I were them, I would sell my products as the "real thing" and "genuine" and if you want the best quality and the real, genuine, original material, buy it from me - Hollywood, rather than downloading it.

If I downloaded all the magnet links in a zip file of all of TPB's content up until that point (which you can). Am I now guilty of mass copyright infringement? I am just demonstrating how futile this entire thing is.